When I was called in, the nurse slowly cut my cast and tore the cotton underneath, exposing my foot and leg (she waited for the doctor to take it all off). Immediately after the nurse left, my foot surgeon came in and greeted me and my sister. He took off the cast completely and removed all the blood-stained gauze around my ex fix. It was all stuck on so he took his time to carefully remove the gauze, and I didn't have any pain from it thank goodness. He then added new, clean gauze around the ex fix and a few times around my foot, and then gave me a removable shoe to wear. No more huge cast!
He also showed me how to turn the external fixator; I did NOT think he would have me start turning until next Monday, which would be two weeks after surgery. My ex fix device is different from pictures I've seen in other blogs; I don't need that little wrench (or whatever it's called) to turn my device. Mine is SUPER easy to turn! There's a knob on the end of the device closest to me, and I just turn it counterclockwise until it "clicks." The doctor turned it three clicks in the office, but instructed me to do two turns on it everyday. Each click is .23 mm, so everyday I turn it close to half a millimeter. Since I'm writing this four days after the appointment, I already have over 2 mm of progress. Doesn't seem like much, but I'm being patient.
My doctor also told me that I could start bearing weight on my foot. I was excited to hear this until I tried it; I cannot believe it, but within the short week that I was completely off my foot, my calf seemed to have atrophied! I feel like I lost all strength in my calf, but I also think my mind is doing it on purpose so I don't overdo it. All day Monday I just worked on flexing my foot and moving my ankle to get some sort of movement.
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